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Monday, July 25, 2011

War references in LHoD

Yet again, another post about Ursula K. le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness!!

SPOILERS

For some reason that I can't remember (oh wait, it was because I was just curious) I started noting down the references to war in LHoD. So here they are! Maybe they'll help me better understand things in LHoD?"I did not speak of war, for a good reason; there's no word for it in Karhidish" (35).

So, we know here that they have no word for it! Or at least, they don't in Karhide.

"[...]but a feud between two nations? a foray involving fifty million souls? O by Meshe's sweet milk, that's a picture that has set fire to my sleep, some nights, and made me get up sweating. . . ." (85)

Obsle is speaking to Therem and they begin to discuss war. We see here that they have no name for it in whatever language they speak in Orgoreyn, and that it is evident that it has not happened in recorded history.

"He was after something surer, the sure, quick, and lasting way to make people into a nation: war. His ideas concerning it could not have been too precise, but they were quite sound" (103).

Tibe is trying to make a foray between two nations...in other words, a war. I guess that would make him quite a visionary, though not a pleasant sort of visionary.

" 'such a grave,' said the Regent, 'as all the enemies of our nation will find!' " (104)

How do you start a war? Name an enemy. An enemy of your family, or even of your hearth? No, an enemy of your country.Tibe has a pretty good idea of how to start a war.

"But there isn't any quarrel between Ovord and Suiwensin. . . ." (112)

An attack has been launched by people of Ovord on Suiwensin, unprovoked, at least on a personal level. Obviously this sort of thing just doesn't happen unprovoked, as it did in this case. And yet it did.I'm pretty sure that this is one of the first steps towards the war that Tibe wants. It wasn't really Ovord vs.. Suiwensin, but Karhide vs. Orgoreyn -- something which isn't evident to those who were attacked.

" 'All the central worlds are still recovering from a disastrous era a couple of centuries ago, reviving lost skills and lost ideas, learning how to talk again. . . .' How could I explain the Age of hte Enemy, and its aftereffects, to a people who had no word for war?" (137)

This illustrates Genly's inability to properly explain war. Which I guess is a good problem to have.